Call your credit card company and protest the charge... you no longer have the laptop right? Tell them it was defective and they dinged you. To my knowledge all states have a consumer protection law that states retailers MUST take back defective merchandice for refund.

Today I drink from the keg of glory, bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.

Keep politely bitching to corporate, tell all your friends in the meantime. Hope you documented everything, hope you were half-ways polite as you bitched them out. I've always found polite bitching goes a lot further. However I had a bad experience with Best Buy and their rude pushy salespeople trying to sell service contracts. It's pretty much everywhere in that business though.

Don't even get me started with my issues concerning my laptop i got from there. Needless to say they talk up the protection plan but if something happens you will be hard pressed to get them to own up to any issues. I lost connectivity due to a worm virus and they had sold me on norton and spysweeper since they have a deal with those companies,,all well and good but they wouldnt honor the plan and fix it for free if i got one of the "impossible to get" viruses....The moral of the story is i am no longer allowed into our local best buy and my ife handles the best buy purchases or laptop servicing. I have a anger control issue.

Originally Posted By HiramRanger:Call your credit card company and protest the charge... you no longer have the laptop right? Tell them it was defective and they dinged you. To my knowledge all states have a consumer protection law that states retailers MUST take back defective merchandice for refund.

If the Best Buy insists that you pay the restocking charge, I would take it to your state/county AG, and have them battle it out. You as an individual is too tiny to deal with a huge corporation such as Best Buy. My son bought a computer mouse from Best Buy years ago, and had to return it, those folks gave him store credit when my son paid them cash. I insisted that the company give him back his CASH, and I got cussed out by the manager in customer service. I won't buy any $hit from them, until my dying days. F'em!

I kept pretty polite as long as I could, but I was essentially called a liar.

What gets me is they have have no written definition of what "defective" covers or how they come to that conclusion. Not working from the get go is defective to me. They didn't check the thing out before I bought it, so I really don't understand how they can accuse me of causing the problem.

Check the Uniform Commercial Code about the legal meaning of implied and expressed warranties. A little law under your belt will go a long way. U.C.C. Section 2-313, 314, 315.

Although the UCC governs B2B (business-to-business) transactions, I think it might have some applicability to B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions. If nothing else, plunk it down on the counter and exert some pressure. They sure as hell won't know the difference.

They clearly won't restock a defective laptop, so that's a moot point. Get your CC company to stop payment completely.

I'd be sending emails and making phonecalls to the highest levels of that company...that is just outrageous.

HH

"To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic." --Ted Nugent

Originally Posted By RELTOR:I guess I have nothing to lose disputing the charge.

I kept pretty polite as long as I could, but I was essentially called a liar.

What gets me is they have have no written definition of what "defective" covers or how they come to that conclusion. Not working from the get go is defective to me. They didn't check the thing out before I bought it, so I really don't understand how they can accuse me of causing the problem.

SOP at best buy. They will spend more money investigating/sending it across the country to have pics taken by "experts" than the product is worth. If they can find a way to stick you with a POS, they will. Man I wish I would not have clicked on this thread, my blood pressure is climbing rapidly.

"You know, it really aint so bad if you close your eyes and pray to God"

A girl named Michelle served me my first piece of Pie. She revealed later that she served pie to all my friends too. Stupid Pie serving bitch.

Originally Posted By RELTOR:This laptop had glitches from the start and the CD-ROM never worked. I returned it in five days and the tech would not deem it a defect. He wanted to work on it. BS on something brand new.

What would you do?

I guess that I would have given them the chance to fix it. Perhaps the CD-ROM drive is defective and screwing up the rest of the system. If you give them a chance at fixing it and they're not successful, then you have more ammo to use against them later when requesting a replacement. In fact, their warranty agreement with you probably states that they have the right to "repair or replace" at their option. If you refuse to follow the warranty agreement, then they will try to not deal with you. You may then have to deal directly with the manufacturer.

Fewer retailers are allowing the "no questions asked" return warranty. Their margins are too thin to keep stocking "slightly used" high tech gear in their warehouse. Even NEWEGG.com has now disallowed returns on many of the items that they offer.

Originally Posted By HiramRanger:Call your credit card company and protest the charge... you no longer have the laptop right? Tell them it was defective and they dinged you. To my knowledge all states have a consumer protection law that states retailers MUST take back defective merchandice for refund.

If the Best Buy insists that you pay the restocking charge, I would take it to your state/county AG, and have them battle it out. You as an individual is too tiny to deal with a huge corporation such as Best Buy. My son bought a computer mouse from Best Buy years ago, and had to return it, those folks gave him store credit when my son paid them cash. I insisted that the company give him back his CASH, and I got cussed out by the manager in customer service. I won't buy any $hit from them, until my dying days. F'em!

Apple will charge you a 10% re-stocking fee on some items, but it's a no questions asked sort of thing. I'd dispute the 15% re-stocking as at the least excessive and arbitrary, especially when you contend the item is DEFECTIVE, a big difference. It's kind of like the auto Lemon Laws.

When words lose their meaning, a people can move neither hand nor foot. Confucius

Nader, ..please.......Jetlag

My version of Kanye West..."George Bush does not like conservative people" by squeezecockerp7m8:

Ive walked into Best Buy a few times when they first opened up...no matter how long i waited by the item I wanted to buy..no matter how much I fooled with it I couldnt get anyone to help me. Now I buy most of my electronics from Circuit CIty...Usually I will do my research, decide what I want, get on their website and order it and go pick it up. Never had any negative issues with them. If I were in your shoes I would call the Credit Card company.

I dunno. I bought my wife an iPod Video from there, and found out it was defective when she tried to use it with her Mac and iTunes. I boxed it back up, took it back on the 27th, and they cheerfully refunded my CC for the full amount, plus the tax I paid.

Originally Posted By HiramRanger:Call your credit card company and protest the charge... you no longer have the laptop right? Tell them it was defective and they dinged you. To my knowledge all states have a consumer protection law that states retailers MUST take back defective merchandice for refund.

Bingo, F em using a CC. This is the one time I gladly use a CC. [Big purchases] If there is something WRONG and not just that you don't like it, let em fight with the CC company because they also have an agreement with the CC company and for that, CC companies do a pretty good job on the side of the consumer. A few dealers who have been screwed by people here using CC can probably attest to that. For good OR bad.

How ironic, they fucked me on a laptop as well. Paid with cash unfortunately, but I had a warranty that stated if the product was defective, I could get a new one for 3 years. I returned it after 2 months to tell them it had major problems. The mouse pad wasn't working, the unit was powering down automatically, and numerous other shit. They took it and claimed it was fixed. The problems remained except for the mouse pad, which eventually started getting buggy.

Assholes. They wouldn't honor the agreement I paid for no matter what.

like I said in the other thread, you guys must go to bad bestbuys, because they have replaced my laptops 2 times and replaced my camera (when I just wanted it to be sent out for a warranty repair) and my camera is $1k. Maybe you guys should just try a different store?

I swear BestBuy buys products that have been dropped and/or been mishandled in some way. I cannot count how many items I have gotten home with a recent purchase from them to find out the product was defective.

Originally Posted By dsg2003gt:like I said in the other thread, you guys must go to bad bestbuys, because they have replaced my laptops 2 times and replaced my camera (when I just wanted it to be sent out for a warranty repair) and my camera is $1k. Maybe you guys should just try a different store?

Why did your laptops have to be replaced twice? Compare the positive reviews with the negative and see what you come up with. You have been lucky so far. Congratulations. Personally, I will not allow them to rape me again.

"You know, it really aint so bad if you close your eyes and pray to God"

A girl named Michelle served me my first piece of Pie. She revealed later that she served pie to all my friends too. Stupid Pie serving bitch.

Good here too. I bought a video card, Sound Card and a Power supply from them. Took the power supply back because it didn't have the right connections for my MB and I seen they had dropped the price of the video card $50. No problem took the PS back and also credited my debit card the $50.

"Our enemies are brutal, but they are no match for the United States of America, and they are no match for the men and women of the United States military." President G.W. Bush

If you still have the computer, take it and a sign to the effect "Come see the defective merchandise BB sold me and can't fix or replace!!" Sit out on the public sidewalk as close as possible, or if it's a public parking lot, park there. You can also call the local consumer reporter and let him know what you are going to do.

You might also give the manager or regional manager a little notice and one last chance to make you happy.

And yes you should have an implied warranty of merchantibility. (Doesn't necessarily mean it will work for what you want it to do, but it is supposed to work when turned on. Charging restocking or other fees when you return DOA merchandise is probably illegal where you are.)

They can't hit an elephant at this diiiis - The late General John Sedgewick

Best Buy sucks and their management are brain dead zombies that can't solve the slightest of problems? This is news?

Do yourselves a favor. If you're going to buy something at Best Buy, do your research before you go in there. Their "salesmen" know next to nothing about anything they sell and will give you bad advice. Do NOT listen to anything the salesman says. I cannot tell you how many times I've argued with theses idiots about what I WANT vs what they think I "need". I now tell them exactly what I want and tell them not to worry about what its going into. (when I actually do buy something for my computer there. Rare anymore)

Be prepared to deal with the manufacturer for defective products as they usually DO give a damn about our businss and will generally honor their warrenty after getting you to jump though a couple of hoops to narrow down the problem.

Their "techs" are an insult to the word "technician". I shudder to think what their "Geek Squad" put people with no knowledge to know better through. Unless these guys are a LOT more knowledgeable than the idiots that used to make up their computer departments, I'd frankly be suprised if they could turn the blinking thing on.

I personally get all my computer parts on line or from a select few local computer shops. I don't go into Best Buy unless its for something I cannot get somewhere else. Especially now that places like Wal-Mart regularly beat Best Buy's prices on a lot of stuff. Their name hasn't been accurate for some time now.

Sounds like you definately got screwed, but I can tell you retailers these days are getting screwed as well from the manufacturers. Unforutunately, Best Buy may be honoring the warranty, the warranty may call for it to be repaired several times before a replacement is offered. It sucks, but if the retailer takes it back and gives you a brand new one, then they have to repair the laptop and take a loss and sell it as used or refurbished. Also, if you are at the service desk calling the DM and "yelling to everyone within earshot", basically making a huge scene, then thats really gonna piss people off that are likely only following manufacturer policy. At that point, you can guarantee they are not going to bend any rules for you........

Originally Posted By Gloftoe:I dunno. I bought my wife an iPod Video from there, and found out it was defective when she tried to use it with her Mac and iTunes. I boxed it back up, took it back on the 27th, and they cheerfully refunded my CC for the full amount, plus the tax I paid.

i don't really have any horror stories either.

I wonder how the free-market apologists would explain the success of BB when so many people are unhappy with it?

Originally Posted By dsg2003gt:like I said in the other thread, you guys must go to bad bestbuys, because they have replaced my laptops 2 times and replaced my camera (when I just wanted it to be sent out for a warranty repair) and my camera is $1k. Maybe you guys should just try a different store?

Why did your laptops have to be replaced twice? Compare the positive reviews with the negative and see what you come up with. You have been lucky so far. Congratulations. Personally, I will not allow them to rape me again.

laptops are generally not made well, and the first one I had kept overheating and one day it just wouldnt turn back on. They replaced that one and I bought a new service plan and then the next one's ethernet card went bad or something and since it was on the motherboard it couldnt be repaired.. I bought the service plan again and now this laptop has been great.

My canon 350d camera had a spec of dust or something in the LCD screen and it had smudges on the image sensor. I brought it to the store about 1 month after and told them about that and the smudges and asked them to send it out, but I was very upset that a new camera would have such problems. The girl behind the counter went and spoke with someone (probably the manager) and she walked up with a brand new in box camera and handed it to me(of course I had to fork over my stuff) and I didnt even have to buy a new service plan or anything.

A store a went to a few years ago in south florida was really shitty, but I wont go back there.

BTW, last month my parents flat panel monitor just stopped working and they brought it to best buy and they just handed them another NEW HP flat panel monitor because they were no longer servicing the MAGtech or whatever it was.

Charging a restocking fee is NORMAL IF the product is NOT defective. Manufacturers nowadays are losing tons of $$$ on stores that are accepting merchandise back just because customers "Just didnt like it"

They are cracking down on that so the stores have to charge a restocking fee to discourage baseless returns and/or recover some money because they HAVE TO sell now a USED product for a discount.

One time when I was in best buy I had a product that JUST DIDNT WORK RIGHT.. Did NOT like it one bit. I returned it and said to the clerk, " I want my money back" He said "Sorry, no money back on opened items, just exchanges" I said "OK What if I exchange it, get back in line with the UNOPENED returned item and get my cash back?" He said "hmmmm I guess you can do that"

And I did.

"A dyslexic, agnostic insomniac: One who stays up all night wondering if there is a Dog. " ---Mall-Ninja

"16 will get you 20, or 6 feet, depending on who's math you use." ---Scooter308

Originally Posted By eodtech2000:I haven't step foot in one in years. I pretty much buy all my computer/electronic stuff from Newegg.com.

+1

Newegg = Greatest.Store.Evar.

I just bought a pair of 19" LCD monitors for my gaming machine today from them

Newegg and ZipZoomFly.com are both top rated as far as I'm concerned.

TigerDirect.com is also good in my experience, but I'm getting tired of the rebate paperwork, and friends of mine have had significant problems with them. So, I'm cautious, but still use them when necessary.